MEMORIES

Lalo Ramirez

“Our house only had two windows broken out, but the houses behind and on either side of us were destroyed.”

During the time of the tornado, I had just got home from summer school and was helping my mom plant some rosebushes. My dad, (who was) in a wheelchair, never believed a tornado would hit Topeka. I just happened to go out the back door and notice the funnel — the twister coming right at us. Me and my brother picked (my father) up out of the wheelchair. We barely just shut the basement door when we felt a pull, and before you know it, it’s over and done.

Our house only had two windows broken out, but the houses behind and on either side of us were destroyed. We had a big oak tree out front, and it split (with the house in between). It looked like it had fallen on the house, but it didn’t. We went out to help some of our neighbors trapped in their basement. It was terrible, but basically that’s what I remember — the destruction and the neighbors.